Provenance:   

(Probably) Senator Girolamo Gerini Bonciani, Palazzo on Via de’ Ginori, Florence, until 1686; by descent to his son:

Andrea Carlo Gerini Bonciani Pappagalli, Palazzo on Via de’ Ginori, Florence, by 1712 and until 1766; by descent to his son:

Carlo Andrea Gerini Bonciani Pappagalli, Palazzo on Via de’ Ginori, Florence, until 1833; when transferred due the extinction of the Gerini Bonciani Pappagalli line to:

Palazzo Gerini, Via Ricasoli, Florence

Marquises Gerini, Palazzo Gerini, Via Ricasoli, Florence.

Exhibited:

“Wealth and Beauty: Pier Francesco Foschi and Painting in Renaissance Florence,” Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, 29 January – 24 April 2022.

“Pier Francesco Foschi (1502 – 1567) Pittore Fiorentino,” Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, 27 November 2023 – 10 March 2024 (Requested).

Literature: 

Simone Giordani, Madonna and Child with the Young St John the Baptist by Pier Francesco Foschi, Florence, 2019.

Nelda Damiano, Wealth and Beauty: Pier Francesco Foschi and Painting in Renaissance Florence, exh. cat., Athens (forthcoming).

This impressive painting of the Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is a recent addition to the oeuvre of Pier Francesco Foschi. Despite being one of the most successful painters of his day in Florence, Foschi fell into relative obscurity in the centuries following his death. This is due in large part to Giorgio Vasari’s exclusion of a biography dedicated to him in his seminal Lives of the Artists. Strangely, Vasari had planned to write a biography of Foschi, as attested by the inclusion of his name in a list of artists that he compiled in preparation for the second edition of his text, but ultimately did not.[i] Foschi’s artistic personality only began to come back into focus in the mid-twentieth century, and today his reputation as an artist of great skill is firmly established. Recently, the first monographic exhibition dedicated to Foschi was presented at the Georgia Museum of Art, in which our painting prominently featured in the first gallery (Fig. 1). This exhibition, including our painting, will travel to its second location at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence in 2023/2024.

The work presents a monumental depiction of the Virgin with the Christ Child on her lap, with the young Saint John the Baptist kneeling nearby. Christ peers out of the painting with a gentle smile and engages with the viewer. He holds a small pear, a symbol both of sweetness and of Christ himself, who is considered the sweetest of foods who will redeem humanity. The child appears in an especially dynamic pose, with his legs splayed and his right arm traversing his body and held outstretched as he offers the pear to his mother. The sense of activity and movement of the child contrasts beautifully with the equally dynamic but distinctly sculptural pose of the Virgin, whose form and position are accentuated by the weighty folds of her drapery. Rather than engaging with Christ, the Virgin turns her attention to John the Baptist, who kneels in adoration with his hands and large reed cross held close to his chest as the Virgin reaches out to grasp him, linking the two children in a subtle embrace. Our painting stands out as an exceptional example of Foschi’s technical skill as a painter. Particularly noteworthy is the masterful use of hatching throughout with which the artist developed forms and applied shadows, modeling the three-dimensionality of figures. These tightly controlled brushstrokes are counterbalanced by the broad and swiftly applied passages that define the rocky outcrop that serves as a backdrop to the figures, as well as the fluidly painted clouds and mountainous landscape in the right background.

While the compositions and coloration of Foschi’s mature paintings, such as this one, reveal the influence of the great Mannerist painters who were his contemporaries in Florence, the artist’s training began in the earlier Renaissance style practiced by his father. Foschi was the son of Jacopo di Domenico, a pupil of Sandro Botticelli so closely linked to his master that he was often referred to as “Jacopo di Sandro.” Although he was born to a painter trained in the Botticellian idiom and was clearly influenced by this in his earliest work, Foschi’s artistic formation and maturation occurred while in the workshop of Andrea del Sarto. He must have remained associated with Andrea del Sarto’s workshop until the latter’s death in 1530, although he began his independent artistic activity in the late 1520s and is known to have rented a studio jointly with his father in 1529.[ii]

When Giorgio Vasari entered Andrea del Sarto’s workshop as a young boy in the mid-1520s, Foschi must have already been among the master’s principal assistants. Vasari mentioned Foschi several times in the Lives, which records several prominent commissions that he undertook for the Medici, including collaborations with Pontormo on fresco cycles at the Villa di Careggi in 1535 (now lost) and at the Villa di Castello in 1536. Vasari also reports that Foschi was a founding member of the Accademia del Disegno and was involved in the creation of the decorations for Michelangelo’s funeral in the Basilica di San Lorenzo in 1564, evincing Foschi’s privileged position in the artistic community in Florence. Contributions over the last 75 years by Roberto Longhi, Antonio Pinelli, and Simone Giordani have brought Foschi back to light and have clarified our understanding of his art and career.[iii]

Although he was engaged to paint several monumental altarpieces over the course of his long career—including those in the Oratorio di San Sebastiano dei Bini (1525) and in the family chapels of the Bettoni, Torrigiani, and the Bini families in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence (all 1540s)—Foschi was, to borrow the words of Luigi Lanzi, a “pittor di private cose,” a painter of private works.[iv] He remained in Florence throughout his life, painting many portraits of Florentine patricians and religious works intended for domestic settings. While he was somewhat influenced by the formal and stylistic experimentation of Rosso Fiorentino and Pontormo, Foschi remained largely resistant to the dominant mannerist style of the 1550s and 1560s. Throughout his career Foschi remained indebted to his master’s legacy, drawing on Sarto’s compositions while reworking them into novel and highly successful devotional images, such as in the present work.

Foschi’s authorship of the present work has been confirmed by Dr. Giordani, who has published an extensive essay on the painting, as well as by Dr. Carlo Falciani, to whom we are grateful for his observations.[v] Both Giordani and Falciani concur in dating our painting to the mid-1540s at the height of the artist’s career and have compared the work with Foschi’s Conception of Mary with Saints of 1545–1546 in the Basilica of Santo Spirito, known as the “Pala Torrigiani (Fig. 2). Giordani has noted that Foschi used the same cartoon to design the profile of the young Saint John the Baptist in our painting and the putto to the right of the Virgin in the altarpiece in Santo Spirito (Fig. 3). Interestingly, the composition of the painting was likely inspired by a lost work by Andrea del Sarto, most likely a drawing, which also influenced Foschi’s slightly younger companion in Andrea del Sarto’s workshop, Jacopino del Conte (Fig. 4). Jacopino del Conte’s treatment of the composition reveals the influence of Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel, which the artist encountered and studied during his travels in Rome. The coexistence of Foschi and del Conte’s related paintings provides a fascinating window into the process of adaptation and emulation of earlier artistic models. Foschi’s work in particular attests to his deep familiarity with his master’s inventions and his unparalleled ability to transform them within his personal style.

Our painting descended in the collections of the Gerini Family of Florence from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, ending among the holdings of the Marquises Gerini in the Palazzo Gerini on the Via Ricasoli.  The painting can be seen hanging in an elegant room on the primo piano of the palazzo in a 1973 photograph (Fig. 5). Simone Giordani has convincingly reconstructed the painting’s provenance within the Gerini Bonciani Pappagalli family, a branch of the Gerini that was extinguished in 1833 and whose property was transferred to the main branch of the family and housed in the Palazzo Gerini.[vi] The work has survived in excellent condition and on its original poplar panel support. It is presented in an impressive 17th-century frame which bears a painted inscription “B.[eata] V.[ergine] con S.[anto] B.[ambino] e S.[anto] giov[anni]” (The Blessed Virgin with the Holy Child and Saint John) on the reverse.[vii]

[i] Simone Giordani, Madonna and Child with the Young St John the Baptist by Pier Francesco Foschi, Florence, 2019, pp. 11-12. This autograph list of artists is now in the British Museum.

[ii] Louis Waldman, “Three Altarpieces by Pier Francesco Foschi: Patronage, Context and Function,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 137 (2001), p. 22.

[iii] Roberto Longhi, “Avvio a Pier Francesco Toschi,” Paragone, vol. 43 (1953), pp. 53-54. The correct spelling of the artist’s surname was established by: Donato Sanminiatelli, “Foschi e non Toschi,” Paragone, vol. 91 (1957), pp. 55-57. The catalogue of works attributed to Foschi was first assembled by: Antonio Pinelli, “Pier Francesco di Jacopo Foschi,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 109 (1967), pp. 87-108. For the most recent treatment of the artist, see: Giordani, Madonna and Child with the Young St John the Baptist by Pier Francesco Foschi.

[iv] Luigi Lanzi, Storia Pittorica della Italia, vol. 1, Milan, 1824, p. 270.

[v] Dr. Giordani’s essay and a catalogue entry authored by Dr. Falciani are available upon request.

[vi] For a full discussion of the painting’s probable provenance with inventory references, see: Giordani, Madonna and Child with the Young St John the Baptist by Pier Francesco Foschi, pp. 35-36.

[vii] The reverse of the frame also displays in the lower left a handwritten label reading “VII. A. n. 140,” and is marked in pencil with the number “8” or “181.” The panel is also inscribed on the reverse “n:4.”